- All beef should be organic due to the high levels of hormones, pesticides and heavy metals found in beef
- If you can find organic, free range chickens, use them
- Eggs should always be organic
- Fish oils MUST be molecularly distilled. Only use flaxseed, olive, or safflower oil in a pinch. It is best to purchase fish oil as a liquid in a glass bottle and keep it refrigerated. Do not buy any oil that is in plastic containers. Capsule form is fine so long as the shell is made of gelatin. If you are increasing the dogs fat content for working dogs, you must also increase Vitamin E accordingly
- Vitamins should be power pills or capsules that have a gelatin shell only
- Broccoli and Carrots should only be fed in very small quantities and must be very finely grated.
- Never give more garlic than specified based on the dogs weight, more is not better and can be toxic in large doses.
- When purchasing kelp, get it in powered format. Be weary of purchasing any Kelp from Japan due to the potential radiation problem until it is has been determined that the kelp is 100% safe.

Organizations

Independent Organizations

National Research Council: Independent non profit agency. They publish the medical text book "Nutritional requirements of dogs and cats"

AAFCO is considered the authority in setting the guidelines and definitions for animal feed, including dog food ingredients. For instance, this is the organization that will decide what is considered a "by-product".

Note: They are not a government agency and have no regulatory authority to enforce any standards. They are made up of representatives from government, dog food companies, the Pet Food Institute and the rendering industries.

AAFCO is in charge of establishing the rules for what needs to be displayed on dog food labels, and "how" it must be displayed. Read here to see how confusingly cryptic these labels really are and how to decipher them.

Although AAFCO does analyze new foods to ensure they contain the ratio of protein, fat, fiber and minerals, listed on the dog food labels, they do not analyze the source nor safety of these ingredients.

They also conduct feeding trials on new dog foods but, unfortunately, they are far from perfect.